Watching Rod Blagojevich and Judy Baar Topinka’s exchange of political low blows through sludgy campaign ads would be pretty comical if both weren’t running for the highest office in Illinois.

The two are at each other’s throats like petty children in a sandbox, so you’d think they’d want to dish it out in one big political mud-slinging fest, right? It’d make good pay-per-view, but like two stubborn mules — even though Topinka is Republican — the two could never come to an agreement that suited each other.

A privileged few saw the two debates: first, a small group at Millikin University and second, the Chicago Tribune editorial board.

Forget about the 12.5 million people who live in Illinois; only a few hundred will ever get to see the candidates they are to choose from actually debate the issues each proposes to tackle in the next four years.

Blago and Topinka couldn’t come to an agreement, but it’s the citizens in Illinois who will suffer because of their miscommunication. If neither campaign office can handle a televised debate schedule, how do they propose to manage the fifth largest state in the nation?

Months ago, Blagojevich admitted he helped get a state job for a friend whose husband wrote a $1,500 check to the governor’s daughter as a birthday present. As the front-runner, Blago doesn’t need to debate and certainly doesn’t want birthday-gate to become a stumbling block in his re-election quest.

But Topinka should’ve taken Blagojevich’s challenge of 10 debates shortly after the primary. As the underdog challenger, Topinka struck out looking by not quickly accepting his offer.

So the race is between thick-skulled pundit A and hapless pundit B, both of whom we’ll never really know enough about. Wow, Green party candidate Rich Whitney is starting to look like the level-headed one.